I woke up this morning and went to my e-mail to see what new things the day had in store for me. Right away I was swamped with mail that told of torture, conspiracy, lies and predications of wars, regime change, and a world that will cease to exist unless our government and other governments around the world stop this noxious carbon build-up in our atmosphere. I hear from my wife that my Brother-in-law is going to Europe and that he’s been advised to make sure that he and his family make sure to not wear anything advertising the fact that they are American. Today I learned about Operation Northwoods that was planned in 1962, http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/news/20010430/for our government to set up an invasion of Cuba. While reading it, I see an uncanny resemblance to the events of 9/11 and I feel my brain groaning with disgust and anger. Is this really what’s happening? Am I reading a script for another Roman Empire?

No, but I am realizing that I’m living in a new world, and that there is something happening, something that will be written about in the future as a time of change, when America either became a dictatorship, or came extremely close. We will read about how America transformed itself from a country with great ideas, and even though it wasn’t perfect, it was still a model for democracies around the globe, to just another morally bankrupt nation. Just another nation that has reached its zenith and now has only its memories of glory to teach to its children.

But another, more insidious thought keeps hitting me in the back of my head. Maybe, just maybe, it isn’t enough just to be a member of the community of nations. Maybe our grand past conjures up hopes of an even grander future where the world is subservient to some “master plan”. It seems that all nations reach a point where the people become disinterested in the workings of government and because of this disinterest in how they are ruled, they become easy prey for predatory people that have no conscience, and who are not bound by tradition. People that see power as an end to itself and are never satisfied until they are in complete control. This is where I see this country at now.

The United States is not the nation it once was. The bastion of Democracy that fought against totalitarianism in the last century has become more and more like the nations it fought. We are a nation that sees itself first among nations. Our citizens believe us to be the natural leader of the world for no other reason but for the military power that we wield. This is the supreme example of “Might makes right”, and no different than Rome during its preeminence. The facts are that power doesn’t make one nation or group right; it just makes them the most powerful. Unless you believe that a Supreme Being will only give power to the righteous, than power is just that…power.

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Now we have two points on which this regime that is in Washington grows more and more sinister. We have the Operation Northwood and the President claiming his righteousness comes from a “higher power”. This belief, although not directly stated, has been hinted at since Bush has claimed the Presidency. Once God has been thrown into the political mix, you then breed the righteous elite, and now the people that disagree with them are branded “heretics”. Politics becomes less of a way to view ideas, and more of a religion. There are those that can’t understand why Bush still has his “base” and those that support him even when he is proven wrong, as in the case for war in Iraq. Perhaps this is the reason? There has to be something besides reason to continue to back and support this kind of politics. If it isn’t God, than it must be money.

The Iraqi people will vote on their 30 year bill to transfer 75% of their oil fields to the multi-national oil cartels. Was this a good reason to send American men and women that signed up to protect their nation to their deaths? The American people don’t seem to think so, as almost 70% of the people polled do not support this war. The Iraqi people don’t seem to believe that the government that was installed by the United States is doing the right thing, no matter what kind of “spin” our government puts on it. So why are we still there?

This is the trillion dollar question. The very idea that the Congress of the United Statescannot stop the executive branch from doing as it pleases does not bode well for our democracy or republic, or whatever you wish to call our government. As it stands our government is supposed to be a representative republic. It is now hardly that. When 70% of the people are demanding that we pull out and end this war and Congress and the President do not bend to the will of the people, you can hardly say we are represented at the Federal level at all.

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So who is running this country? It certainly is not the people. If it is not the people that determines what our nation does than who does? Some say corporate interests. Others say that it is a “shadow” government of bankers and international cartels that the Bush family is involved with. Others just brand it “The Military-Industrial Complex”. The truth may be that it is all of these entities, but it certainly not the American people that are calling the shots. If the American people were being represented in Washington, we would be out of Iraq, the oil companies would be under investigation for price-fixing and anti-trust issues and we would be repealing the Patriot Act, The new improved Insurrection Act, and The Military Commissions Act of 2006 while closing down Guantanamo.This is not happening, so what is really happening?

Iran is coming under more criticism by the administration that brought us to war in Iraq. Some politicians are calling for us to strike Iran, even though there is no solid proof that Iran has done anything to warrant an attack from us. We are putting a missile system in Poland after the United States and NATO promised the Russian government that we would not do this. We have over 5,000 troops on the Russian border and we are holding carrots to the Ukraine and Georgia, once part of the Soviet Union to join NATO. Why?

Why indeed? Having a US military presence on the borders of Russia, complete with missile systems that could conceivably launch a first-strike into Russia with a 99% chance of making it impossible for Russia to respond in kind would effectively make Russia a puppet state of The United States. Is this what we envisioned when the cold war ended? Aren’t we the people that said to Russia that we could live and co-exist together? Was this the goal of America from the beginning? I hardly think it was. I believe that our government has been Bushwhacked (no pun intended). We have gone from the bastion of the Free World to a predatory nation of thugs. Meanwhile the thoughts of Operation Northwood run through my mind. All of the scenarios that could lead this nation to believe that we are under attack from others have been written down and given to this man we call our President. The hijacked airliners smell of Operation Northwoods, and the World Trade Center disaster brings to mind the statement that Bush made; “We need another Pearl Harbor” (http://www.rense.com/general57/aale.htm) and (http://www.apfn.org/apfn/pearl_harbor.htm).

So what do we have here? Is this a government run amok? Does George W. Bush, the “C” student from Texas see himself as the next Julius Caesar? I honestly believe that he does. I also believe that there are people around him that want him to believe it. I also believe that the press conference that Vladimir Putin gave at the G-8 Summit (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17856.htm) was one of the most candid and thoughtful views into this Russian leader’s mind. He directly states that Russia has tried to be the best kind of partner that they can be since the end of the “Cold War”. I believe him. I believe that Putin is to be trusted more that Bush is to be trusted. Putin mentions that Amnesty International lists The United States of America as the preeminent violator of human rights. How can that be? Don’t I live in “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave”? Is this the country that I helped to protect for 21 years by wearing Army green?

These are the questions that I grapple with. I’m not the only one that looks at things in these terms. I wish that I were the only one, I could just say to myself that I’m letting myself be stressed with wild imaginings, but I’m not. I am seeing things that others are seeing and it’s got me worried, so worried in fact, that I feel as if I’m not living in America anymore. I don’t see elections coming in 2008, I believe that something will “happen”. I do hope I’m wrong. I just don’t see these people leaving. We all need to be totally alert to what is morphing inside our White House and our Congress.

Speaking of Congress let me ask a rhetorical question. If those that are running for President are serious about ending this war in Iraq, then why don’t the Senators among them prove their mettle and introduce legislation to end this war? If 70% of the people want this war to end, what would they stand to lose? Think about it. I do. I think about a lot of things. I have a lot of questions, but at this point, I don’t have a lot of answers. All I know is that I don’t make this stuff up.